Beating The Odds
by bjames238
Summary: The pilot episode with a few character details tweaked. Details inside. Primarily LP but others as well. Main characters: Lucas, Peyton, Haley, Nathan, Brooke, Jake, Jenny, Ian, Nikki with Karen, Dan, Whitey, Deb, Larry, & Keith
1. Prologue

**Beating The Odds**

_One Tree Hill_ A.U.

**Prologue: Setting The Stage**

Okay before I start the actual fic how about a little backstory just to set the stage. It's season one . . . just different. Jake and Peyton are siblings and they're very close. When Larry and Anna Sawyer adopted Peyton from Ellie, they soon after found out the were pregnant with a baby boy they name Jake. Peyton also has an older half brother named Derek on her real father's side who moved to Tree Hill with his mom when Peyton was 4. She saw Derek a lot growing up . . . since they were 6 years apart he made it his job to take care of his little sister and her other brother. Anna died when Peyton was 8 and Jake almost 7. After Anna died, Larry worked all the time leaving Peyton and Jake to fend for themselves.

Early in high school Peyton began dating Ian Banks . . . a junior to her sophomore. It was a very abusive relationship and Peyton's brothers and best friends Brooke Davis and Nathan Scott tried to get her to end it. When Peyton told Ian she was pregnant, Ian took off. Not long after, Ian's older college sister Nikki mysteriously took off as well. A few months later . . . Jenny Sawyer was born. Peyton didn't tell but a select few that she had a baby and only her circle of friends and family knew. Not long after Jenny was born, Peyton started dating Nathan. He was a good guy . . . but they were just better as friends and shortly after broke up. Now Nathan and Brooke are dating—with Peyton's blessing. At the beginning of summer after Peyton's sophomore year, Derek (now 22) recently went off to war in Iraq.

With everything that's happened to her, Peyton closed herself off from the world . . . only letting in those closest to her. She's long since stopped believing in the good things and constantly worries about the future. Her only release is the drawings she's constantly producing . . . most of them featuring Jenny.

Everything else is pretty much the same. Dan chose Deb and Nathan, leaving Karen to raise Lucas alone. Keith is the father Lucas never had. Deb's always working. Nathan and Lucas grew up in two different houses . . . but Nathan was pressured by Dan to treat Lucas as the enemy even though he wanted to have a brotherly relationship with the blonde Scott. Lucas quit basketball young because it was hurting his mother. Lucas has always had a crush on Peyton . . . but he doesn't know about Jenny. Lucas, Haley, Skills, Mouth, Jimmy, Junk, and Fergie are their own little group.

Currently Jenny's six months old and Peyton hasn't heard from Ian since she told him she was pregnant. Jake has taken a huge role in helping his older sister with Jenny. Summer's over and it's the beginning of junior year. Everything's fairly quiet . . . until Lucas joins the Ravens and everyone's lives kalaidescope . . .

People return, drama ensues, love blossoms, tragedy strikes, kids grow up, parents interfere, and the town of Tree Hill will never be the same . . .

To Be Continued . . .


	2. Chapter 1: The Other Scott

**Beating The Odds**

_One Tree Hill_ A.U.

**Chapter One: Two Worlds Collided**

"Well, well . . . if it isn't Keith Scott," Coach Whitey Durham smirked from his desk in his office at Tree Hill High School. "Been a long while since you visited my neck of the woods."

Keith hovered in the doorway, holding up a silver flask in his hand. "Thought you might want to have a drink with one of your former players."

"Sit down," Whitey gestured to one of the chairs on the other side of his desk. The old coach opened a drawer and pulled out a Ravens coffee mug.

"Don't mind if I do," Keith sat down, pouring some of the liquid into the mug. The two toasted and took a drink.

Whitey set his mug down on the desk. "Now why don't you tell me why you're really here . . . not that I don't mind a drink once and a while."

"Lucas," Keith closed the flask.

"You mean Dan's other son?" Whitey raised his eyebrow.

"Karen's son," Keith said, "Dan's on the birth certificate . . . but they never got married."

"And you . . ." Whitey said.

"I'm the kid's uncle and I'm in their lives—it is what it is," Keith sighed. He looked up at the coach. "Why don't we take a ride?"

Ten minutes later Keith pulled his Jeep up to the grass of the Rivercourt. About four teen boys were playing in the dark, their only source of light from a single streetlight next to the court. On a picnic table, three other teens—two more boys—watched and laughed with the action pretend microphones in their hands.

"What is this, Keith? A playground?" Whitey said.

"He deserves to know he's good," Keith spoke of his nephew.

"If he were any good, he'd be in my gym playing varsity already," Whitey took a deep breath.

"He quit because of Dan," Keith told Whitey, "He's afraid of hurting his mother."  
"So why'd you come to me?" The old man spoke.

"He should know," Was all Keith said. The two continued to watch the boys play.

~*~

Lucas ran down the street, bouncing his basketball as "Hands Down" by Dashboard Confessional droned in his earbuds. His 'Keith Scott Motors' hooded sweatshirt and black sweats stuck to his skin as he ran.

It was another night of basketball at the Rivercourt with the guys before going to his mom's cafe to have dinner with her and his best friend Haley. Growing up he'd always wondered what life would be like with a mother and a father . . . but shortly after starting high school he'd come to realize he didn't need a father. He had his mom, Keith, Haley, and the guys . . . and that was family enou--

_SCREECH!!!!!!_

Lucas stopped dead in his tracks as a car stopped not inches from his knees. He turned to see the owner of the car . . . and his heart literally jumped up to his throat. He'd just almost been hit by the popular and ever so beautiful Peyton Sawyer in her comet convertible. He pushed his hood down and took out his earbuds.

She was staring at him through the windshield. Their eyes were practically locked together. They were so tight he didn't think anything couldn't breath the connection apart. Then the moment was lost when she rolled her eyes. She moved her arms, gesturing for him to get off the road. He chuckled . . . cute _and_ had an attitude. Putting his earbuds back in, he ran off the road and down the sidewalk. He could hear her screech off in the other direction and before long she was gone.

He stopped, turning around. She was just turning the corner up ahead, her car wizzing down the street. He'd first laid eyes on Peyton Sawyer in the first grade when he saw her sitting on the outside stairs of Tree Hill Elementary School after the day was over. She was crying, hugging her shoulders and stairing down at her shoes, her backpack on the cement next to her. His mom always picked him up a little later from school so she could work longer so he was usually the last one left at the school. That day, however, his mom came to pick him up and Peyton was still there. He'd wanted to ask her if she wanted a ride home but his mom was in a hurry. From that day on he'd decided he was in love with her.

Later he found out that was the day her mom died.

He stared down the road where her car was. He'd been trying for years to work up the courage just to talk to her . . . and today he'd shared eye contact with her. He'd definitely have to tell his best friend about this.

To Be Continued . . .


	3. Chapter 2: Not Just A Statistic

**Beating the Odds**

_One Tree Hill _A.U.

**Chapter Two: Not Just A Statistic**

After almost hitting that guy, Peyton made sure to get home quickly and without any other incidents. Before long she pulled her comet up into the driveway. Despite the fact that it was only seven, the house was dark. This wasn't a surprise to her, however. She and her younger brother lived not dull but definitely not normal teen lives.

She cut the engine, grabbed her bag, and headed up to the door. Her keys jingled loudly as she opened to door and she quickly stuffed them into her jacket pocket. Her eyes blinked from the light of the living room television screen. She stopped in the doorway, smiling, as she was greeted with the sight of the two sleeping bodies on the couch.

Her younger brother Jake was sprawled out on the couch on his back, his infant neice Jenny asleep on his chest. One of his arms was around the baby and the other across her legs. Jenny's fingers tightly grasped her uncle's shirt. Peyton quickly tiptoed over to the bookshelf and grabbed one of her many sketchbooks and pulled a marker out of her back pocket. She sat down on the armchair across from the two and the marker flew across the pad. Soon the picture of an uncle and his nece appeared on the paper along with the words 'What makes it all worth it'.

Satisfied with her creation, she brought her bag and the picture upstairs to her room. The Ravens cheerleading bag was forgotten at the door as she crossed to the wall space beside the bed. She peeled the adhesive off the back and pressed the drawing on the red wall next to dozens of other drawings. She stepped back and looked at the big picture.

She loved to draw . . . it had always been the one thing she was good at. It allowed her to escape the crappy world she lived in and just focus on what she wanted to be. Not another teenage mother who was adopted because her biological parents were too young when they had her and now her adoptive parents . . . well one was dead and the other was never around. She hated that she was just another statistic . . . she was so much more than that. So what if she had a baby and was only 16 . . . she was still going to school and supporting not only herself and her baby but her 15-year-old brother as well.

Of course hardly anyone knew about Jenny . . . just close friends and family. It wasn't that she was ashamed of Jenny . . . she loved her daughter and didn't regret in the slightest having her. But she knew how people—especially people in high school—could be and wasn't ready to expose her own flesh and blood to the horrors of the world yet. She'd hid her stomach when she was pregnant . . . thankful that it _wasn't _during cheerleading season. Once Jenny was born she quickly shed the baby weight and was back to her old skinny size. The only way anyone would know by looking at her was the single scar on her stomach where the doctors had to do a c-section.

"Peyt?"

The blonde turned, seeing her brother in the doorway with a crying Jenny in his arms. She took her baby girl in her arms and held in the infant close. Soon Jenny was back to sleep and Peyton continued to rock her. "Thanks for watching her this late, Jake." Peyton whispered. "Brooke took forever with tryouts for the new year."

"It's fine, sis," Jake shook his head. "Don't worry about it."

"I just hate relying on you so much," Peyton sighed.

"What's family for?" Jake smirked. "I ordered a pizza for dinner . . . it's in the fridge when you're ready for it."

"Great, thanks," Peyton smiled.

"Jen had a bottle about an hour ago but it's been a while since she's had a diaper change," Jake told her.

"Okay . . . I gotta get her night clothes on anyway and I should give her a bath too," Peyton decided.

"Oh . . . and your counselor called. She wants to see you over lunch tomorrow," Jake said.

Peyton groaned, "Wonderful . . . nosy bastards butting in where they don't belong." With the exception of Coach Durham she hadn't even told anyone at school yet about Jenny . . .

"Pretty much, yeah," Jake nodded. "I'll be in my room doing homework." He left the room, closing the door behind him.

Peyton sat down on the bed, snuggling her daughter close. The baby's bright blonde hair glinted in the moonlight coming from the window and her soft breath against Peyton's chest was a comfort to the young mother. There were times when she questioned why the hell she'd kept the baby when she'd found out . . . but there were moments like this when Jenny was asleep in her arms when she didn't regret for a minute choosing to keep her daughter.

Jenny's father had sure put Peyton through so much hell . . . but what he left behind made enduring all of that for so long worth it. Thankfully he was gone . . . Peyton had Jake to help her. She didn't need him. She wasn't just a statistic and she would raise Jenny right.

To Be Continued . . .


End file.
